The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the LokSabha in a written reply today that as per the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Regulation of Supply and Distribution), (Amendment) Order 2014, a person or household is entitled for one LPG connection under Public DistributionSystem(PDS). For new connection, the customer should furnish duly filled Know Your Customer (KYC) Formalongwith valid proof of Identity and address to the distributor.
Further, to facilitate LPG coverage for BPL families, a scheme for providing one time grant to BPL families for release of new LPG connection is in operation. As per the scheme, the security deposit (upto Rs. 1600/-) for one cylinder and Pressure Regulator is paid from the fund created for this purpose.
State/UTs-wise total registered domestic consumers including BPL customers for the last two years and current year (as on 01.11.2015) is at Annexure
OMCs aim to increase the National LPG coverage to 75 %, with minimum 60 % coverage at State level and at least one distributor in each block by 2019. To increase the penetration in rural and backward areas, Oil Marketing Companies(OMCs) are appointing new LPG distributors and more than 97 % of blocks are being catered by at least one LPG distributorship.
It is the endeavor of OMCs to meet the demand of the customers within 7 working days from the date of booking. However, delay in refill supplies may occur in the event of backlog due to non-availability of filled LPG cylinders with the distributors for unavoidable reasons, road breaches, floods, strikes, incidents of bandhs, shortage of bulk LPG, non-availability of trucks, etc. and in such situations bottling plants work on extended hours as well as on holidays to clear the backlog.
OMCs have also reported that they are regularly monitoring all the distributorships and any additional supplies required by the distributors, to meet the demand, is released accordingly so as to ensure that all consumers including rural consumers get timely refill supplies.